Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Tuesday 05/08 A.M. Quickie:Jazz, Warriors, Cuban, Penny, More

Jazz out-run Warriors in Game 1: Nothing takes the air out of a good unified national fan bandwagon like losing.

Just as GoldenState's Game 1 win over the Mavericks set up their magical run in round one, the Warriors' Game 2 loss to the Jazz slows the momentum. (If you can use a term like "slow momentum" when it comes to the frenetic Warriors.)

I think the Warriors had too long of a rest between series, while Utah was riding the wave of the Game 7 win over the Rockets – and home-court advantage.

In the end, that's what I'm watching: I won't count the Warriors out until they lose at home (which they won't). This is going to be a hell of a good series.

(Meanwhile, with all the attention on Baron Davis right now, will this series be the moment that Utah's Deron Williams -- 31 pts last night – has his national breakout moment?)

Pistons blow out Bulls... again: Wow, is this going to be over quickly or what? It's not even about Ben Wallace's old teammates showing him what's what; it's about the class of the conference beating up on a wannabe.

Mark Cuban supports PEDs in the NBA: I'm sure there's more nuance to his argument than was presented in the Men's Journal article. There's a part of me that thinks he says these kinds of things to say them, for the attention they bring, and part of me that thinks he says these things because he's a really smart guy and he knows what he's talking about. I'm pretty sure he'll be shouted down in this case, because "PED" is the dirtiest word in sports right now.

Roger Clemens says "it's not about the money," which is the biggest load of bunk in the Clemens saga since "But the test was clean."

MLB Stud: Brad Penny, who had a career-high 14 Ks (with zero BBs), raising his record to 4-0 and lowering his ERA to 1.39.

MLB Dud: Joel Zumaya, out for 12 weeks with a finger injury. TBD how it might impact the rest of his season.

HBO yanks Mayweather-DeLaHoya fight off YouTube: A few thoughts on this – (1) Why did it take HBO until Monday to figure out it was out there? (2) The audience for the clips was pretty low. That should bother HBO (and boxing) a lot more than copyright infringement. Maybe if they had two guys boxing AND using Mentos and soda to cause an explosion...

Billy Donovan turns down Grizzlies: I totally neglected to mention this yesterday. Actually, I believe I had written about the Grizzlies' interest in Donovan back in early March, along with the $5 million figure thrown around yesterday. Don't ask how I knew. (Seriously: I think it was from a random message board or something.) Anyway, Billy wanted full control, and the Grizz didn't want to give it to him. Interest over.

There's only one team dumb enough to give one person the coach and GM roles, along with a sick amount of money, and the Knicks already have a guy in that role... for now. I've always claimed that the Knicks job -- coach, GM, the works -- is the one Donovan will get... and take. Will it happen in 2008? We'll see.

Is Shaun Alexander's foot still broken? Eh, maybe the Seahawks would have wanted to know about that before draft day...

Does Jermaine O'Neal want to play for the Knicks? If I was Indiana, given the team has no hope of competing for an East title as-is, I would demand David Lee, Channing Frye and the Knicks No. 1 in '07.

Pac-Man Jones' lawyers have a point when they say that his season-long suspension was "unprecedented in its severity." The Commish should/will reply: "Yeah? So what?"

53 comments:

NHL? Red Wings win and advance. San Jose has to be scratching their heads as to how they let this series slip away. Detroit is starting to wake up and, if they don't lose anymore defensemen to injuries, could raise another Cup. Wings in six; Ottawa in seven.

14 Ks, no runs allowed....and the bum doesn't try to finish the game? Can you have an easier situation to get the CG than a 6 run lead going into the 8th while holding a shut out?Clearly, his balls are made of wet paper bags.

I'm already hearing that "Hamilton can't possibly keep this up" as if everyone is tired of hearing about the story, and hoping it goes away. Well, I hate to say it, but the dude went 4-5 on Saturday, 2-4 on Sunday with 2 HRs, and an o-fer yesterday. He's hitting .292 with 8 HRs and 17 RBIs in 89 AB. I don't know if he'll be able to keep it up, but if he continues to play well, I wouldn't mind hearing Josh Hamilton stories all season.

warriors jazz was a great game anyway, incrediably entertaining, the warriors could have won despite a great game from kirilenkookur and boozer and williams and the warriors were a missed 3 way against the llazz at home.

haven't had the chance to see the SB for Seattle in the 8th....Sterling said he was clearly out, but the call led to the tying run off Farnsworth in the 8th.

ESPN seems to like this David Ortiz story this morning. Wait, there's stuff less regulated in the DR?

These should be some awesome conference finals. I don't understand why the NHL and NBA feel they need to have an East vs. West final. Baseball and football at least have a chance, where if the 2 best teams are geographically close, they don't have to meet until the final. Any reason not to seed 1-16 and just have at it?

I completely agree with Cuban. Most of us reading this blog had some type of PED to help us get through work, school, and/or daily activities better. Why can't athletes?

I'm talking about caffeine, allergy medicine, asprin, etc. While these are not on the same scale, I do not see why there is such a media witch hunt over guys who take these things. Yet, a writer will chug 3 cups of coffee and a redbull to beat the deadline in order to slam athletes who use PEDs. Talk about hypocritical....

It ISN'T about the $$$ with Clemens, it's about ego. If Clemens propels to the playoffs or WS, he's a hero. And if not, he can blame it on injuries. The need to feed one's ego is much hungrier than the need to fill a packed wallet

andy- just go to espn and watch the highlights from the game. He was clearly out.

chipp- Torre was suspended, I think Mattingly was acting manager. And at home if tied going into the ninth there will never be a save situation. So bringing in Rivera is the right move. He just didn't get the job done.

What?! OF COURSE i can fault him. I'm a baseball fan. I need no real logic. :)

High pitch counts didn't hurt Wood or Prior, why would it hurt Penny?

Seriously though...if its right there for you, you try to get it. Throwing 140 pitches one outing won't kill you. He could have just thrown 6 pitches...85 mph fastballs popped up. Whatever. Go for the CG.(which, Andy, would have helped your fantasy too. heh)

If you READ the Cuban article, he talks about how steriods (which are harmful to your health) aren't good and shouldn't be allowed. If something isn't harmful than it's okay to take if they improve performance. At no point did I mention steroids (i was talking about creatine, greenies, uppers, etc...which are mostly allowed by pro sports, therefore I agree with Cuban). You did.

Yeah, Raf, it would have helped me if he got the CG, but I'm still more than satisfied with a win, an ERA of 0.00 and 14 k's. My team hasn't exactly been a strikeout machine so far outside of Sabathia.

Has there ever been a player with such a laundry list of incidents as Pacman? I can't think of any player who was constantly "in the wrong place at the wrong time" as Jones in such a short timespan. The severity of the punishment fits the frequency of the behavior.

Eric and Jen are right...Clemens' ego is in charge. But getting the dollars is part of feeding the ego, so it still is partly about the money.

Wasn't Ortiz the player complaining that MLB was unfairly cracking down on non-English speaking players with the new PED testing because of what was available in the Caribbean and that those players might not understand the written-in-English rules? (Which IMO was more a MLBPA issue rather than a MLB issue.)

Andy...ummm....Arod hasnt hit a homer in 12 games...Hes choking and regressing back to last year. Cashman better start thinking of trade ideas.

(that was me being sarcastic).

How many people hear wants to see Spurs/Jazz match-up? My friend told me he wants to see that match up (hes into D and fundamentals)and I told him it will be the worst series ever. If David Stern wants more fans watching, he better do something quick, because that series will kill whatever momentum the nba has in terms of viewership.

Ugh. Spurs-Jazz and Pistons-Nets/Cavs followed by Spurs-Pistons? Worst. Playoffs. Ever.

Wasn't the big talk before the playoffs that this was going to be a great year? The first round was supposed to only have 2 dud matchups, but the first round sucked (w/ a couple of exceptions) and it's going to continue all the way through the finals.

I dont mind the Pistons. There is a huge difference between the Pistons and the Spurs. Both are known for their D, but I enjoy watching the Pistons. They make wathcing them enjoyable. They have attitude and get excited when a big play happens. But the spurs are so calmn and collected. Its ok at some points, but damn Duncan/Parker/etc, scream once in a while, get pumped up.

If they were really serious about stopping PEDs in baseball, they would randomly test before or after games drawing blood and/or urine. If a player was guilty the team would forfeit the game and the player would be suspended.

Baseball is just hand waving and pretending to do something to placate their fans.

If MLB would really test and start suspended their top players, they would hurt their product.

In cycling over in Europe by comparison, riders are randomly tested before or after competition. Also during the offseason riders have to give their location and can be randomly tested at any time. If found guilty, they are banned for two years for their first offense! And it is doubled for a pro-tour ( equate to major league) to a total of a four year ban.

I would guess that 75% of baseball players have used an illegal PED. I would also guess that 99% of football players have.

So maybe Cuban is right. Let's stop all the hyprocrisy and put everyone on an even playing field. If you want the millions, you have to be willing to sacrifice your future health and well being. If you die from a heart attack on the field that will be a warning to not overdo it to others.

Remember these words: The Jazz will lose this series if they try to play the game at the Warriors' pace.

It is that simple. Nellie will figure out how to accomodate Carlos Boozer. He may just send all his guys to foul Boozer. He may have guys go and take charges constantly to get him out of the game. He may move "Big Al" to pick and pop so that Boozer becomes a defensive liability.

The Jazz need to play their game to win. If they try to play Golden State's game they will lose. There are 3 games in Oakland. If the Jazz think they can go into the Oracle, play Golden State's game, and win, then Jerry Sloan might be done coaching. All the Warriors have to do is win 1 game in Utah. So basically they have to get hot on 1 of 4 nights.

I wouldn't worry too much about there being a limited audience for the boxing clips on YouTube. So much pending litigation is going on there, maybe people just thought it would be taken down really soon. And they would have been right.

Props to all those listing Fausto Carmona as a stud. He's been doing pretty good in the starting role, considering his disasters in the closing role last year.

I'm on the Pistons bandwagon for now. Come the East (or NBA) Finals, I'll be off. I don't think Flip can win the big ones.

Great news for college football lovers.I read earlier on a USC message board that another fan read in the Boston Globe that USC is very close to inking a home and home with Boston College,and or Syracuse starting in 2011. Great pub by Pete Carroll trying to get the East Coast on his side again.

I dont think the Knick's have a first round pick this year(see Eddy Curry trade), so when they get the number one pick in the lottery and Odin goes to the Bulls that crying you hear will be from the NY/NJ area

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.